"We have gradually come to realise that interferences into Poland’s internal affairs are not characterised by adherence to objectivism, or respect for sovereignty, subsidiarity, and national identity," the foreign affairs ministry also said in a public statement.

EU probe

Last July, the EU executive stated there was a ”systemic threat to the rule of law in Poland” and gave Warsaw three months, until 27 October, to take action or else face possible sanctions.

Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, who leads the probe, said he was particularly worried by a lack of independence of Polish courts.

Poland's constitutional tribunal has been paralysed after the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party refused to recognise key judgements and tried to stuff it with loyalist judges.

The government waited until the deadline to reply that they won’t make any changes to the situation.

It’s the first time the commission has put an EU member under scrutiny for passing undemocratic reforms. But, the procedure is still uncharted waters.

Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said on Friday that the next step will be to "carefully" evaluate the Polish government’s response.

"We can confirm that we received a letter from the Polish government. At this stage we will not speculate on possible further steps,” he said.

Article 7

Laurent Pech, professor of European law at Middlesex University in London, said the commission has little room for manoeuvre.

The only option was to trigger article 7 of the EU treaty, which says that EU countries must respect common principles, such as the rule of law, or risk sanctions and even the suspension of voting rights in the Council, where EU governments are represented.

Such a step would require the backing of all EU member states, with the exception of Poland.

”Considering the uncooperative behaviour of the Polish authorities and the body of overwhelming evidence of a deliberate strategy of systematically undermining all checks and balances in Poland, the commission has no other choice but to trigger article 7,” he told EUobserver.

”This is not to say that there is any realistic chance of seeing the Council adopting sanctions against Poland. This would however finally oblige national governments to face up to their own responsibilities,” he added.

A commission spokeswoman, recently told this website that a functioning constitutional court was key to Poland’s rule of law, because it could stop other, dangerous legislative proposals.

”We are also worried about the media law, as well as a number of other laws, which have been challenged before the constitutional tribunal. It is essential that the court is able to review the compliance of such legislative reforms with the Polish constitution, and that its judgments are respected,” the spokeswoman said.

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